Worker Dies After Fall At Schaumburg Site

No Witnesses To Accident That Killed New Lenox Man

A 54-year-old construction worker was killed Friday afternoon after falling from the 5th floor of a building under construction in Schaumburg.

Investigators said the man, Thomas W. Kucharski, of New Lenox, suffered multiple injuries from the fall, which happened about 3:30 p.m. at a building going up at 1800 E. Schaumburg Rd. He was rushed in critical condition to Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village, but was pronounced dead at 5:15 p.m.

Police said Kucharski had been working on the 2nd floor of the six-story building and headed up to the 5th floor to get a torch. There were no known witnesses and it was unclear exactly how he fell, but police said it was possible that Kucharski fell while leaning over to lower the torch by its cord to the second floor.

He apparently broke through safety cable and mesh fencing that had stretched across an open-air area on the southeast side of the building.

Kucharski, a part-time battalion chief for the New Lenox Fire Protection District, was working for Pre-Cast Services, based in Ohio, which is a subcontractor on the job for Turner Construction, police said.

The building is one of two planned for a $100 million office and hotel complex under development on 29 acres at the northwest corner of Schaumburg and Martingale Roads.

First Penn-Pacific Life Insurance Co. plans to move 400 employees from its Oakbrook Terrace and Hoffman Estates offices to the new complex this spring.

The accident is under investigation by the Schaumburg Police Department, city building officials and the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration.